Inductive Automation News Room

Ignition OPC-UA: A First for the Industry

SACRAMENTO, CA - Inductive Automation enjoys pioneering firsts in the industry. This year, the company is excited to introduce the first cross platform OPC-UA server on the market.

The OPC-UA server, Ignition OPC-UA, was built into its most recent release, Ignition by Inductive AutomationTM, and can be used by itself or in conjunction with the rest of the software platform. When developing the software, the company looked at the future of the industry: OPC-UA and cross platform capability.

"With the operating system wars moving into high gear and with the recent widespread adoption of OPC-UA by major software vendors, there was really no other choice than to develop a fully cross-platform, OPC-UA based solution," said Steve Hechtman, president of Inductive Automation. "Ignition is the Swiss Army knife of the industrial software business, and represents a major step forward in continuing our mission of opening up plant data across the enterprise."

In order to develop Ignition upon OPC-UA standards, Inductive Automation became an expert in OPC-UA. They are the first company to independently develop their own stack directly from the OPC-UA specification and successfully test it at a major interoperability workshop.

The server enables cross platform capability for both Windows and Linux. The software is the first system to make Linux a reality in the industry. Linux has never been a viable option in the industrial sector, due to a lack of software options. Ignition changes the game. Now users can take advantage of Linux’s advantages in security, stability and cost.

As an additional dramatic testament to Inductive Automation's commitment to open, accessible data, Ignition will offer the industry's first fully cross-platform commercial OPC-UA server absolutely free. Ignition OPC-UA offers a variety of drivers - with many more to come - and an open driver API, all at no cost to end users.